New Release: Mistletoe and Murder in Las Vegas (Affairs to Remember #1) by Colleen Collins

All 31-year-old, Las Vegas
criminal lawyer Joanne Galvin wants for Christmas is a few clients so
she can make ends meet. Instead she’s roped into defending the
notorious, alleged Timepiece Arsonist; tracked by a hunky special agent
and his arson dog; and chased by a serial killer. Just when her life is
starting to feel like the Nightmare Before Christmas, she receives an
unexpected gift that offers hope for this Christmas to possibly be the
most wonderful time of the year...maybe even for years to come.

A story about a down-on-her-luck lawyer, a jinxed special agent, and an
arson dog named Maggie who join forces in this heartfelt, humorous
romantic-mystery.

Judge Darren Fields, his dark-frame
eyeglasses in stark contrast to his mop of snow-white hair, peered down
at public defender Joanne Galvin as if she were an alien with a law
degree. “You just told the jury that the DA plays fast and
loose like a gunslinger. Has defense lost her mind?”
Whispers rippled throughout the
courtroom. Someone stifled a laugh.
Locked in a stare-down with the judge,
Joanne had the irrational urge to answer “yes.” And she knew
exactly when she’d lost it, too—at one o’clock this morning when she’d
found in the DA’s discovery a buried reference to someone who had seen
“Tater” drinking a beer “that night.”
She’d missed the significance of that
reference the first time she reviewed those pages, but when she read it
again at one this morning, her instincts went on orange
alert. This “someone” had to be the key witness who could
finally prove her client, twenty-year-old Sebastian Vaughn, had been at
a dive bar thirty miles away and not at the scene of the attempted
murder the DA was trying to hang on him. A quick call to
Sebastian’s mother confirmed that years
ago some of his buddies had called him “Tater,” slang for home run as
he had been a star on the high-school baseball team.
By then it was nearly two a.m.
At nine o’clock sharp, she and the DA would begin presenting their
closing arguments in the trial, during which neither were allowed to
enter new evidence, such as this witness.
Despite the ungodly hour, Joanne called
the judge and begged him to please re-open the trial based on what she
read. He grumpily agreed to meet her and Sam Burnette, the
DA, in his chambers precisely at eight o’clock.
A meeting that had gone about as
smoothly as a Three Stooges farce.
Judge Fields had alternated between
swilling coffee and popping antacids while Sam Burnette furiously
accused Joanne of obstructing justice by purposefully waiting until the
night before closing arguments to read parts of discovery.
She countered that the DA had played
dirty by doing a discovery dump on her—referring to the hundreds of
pages of police reports, interviews and other documents that the DA’s
office provided the defense during the pre-trial phase. Only
Esmeralda—an elderly Vegas fortune teller who regularly swindled
tourists on the Strip—and Her Crystal Ball could have divined the
hidden meaning of that purposefully vague reference on first
read-through.
After that the judge quietly belched and
cleaned his eyeglasses for several thoughtful moments.
Putting his glasses back on, he said the mere inference of evidence,
obviously favorable to the defense, was insufficient reason to upset
the orderly administration of justice in his court. Therefore
he ruled the trial would not be re-opened.
Donning his judicial robes, he griped
about his lack of sleep and stated he was not in the mood to put up
with any more tomfoolery.

Colleen Collins is a private investigator and
award-winning author who has written over thirty books for Harlequin
and Dorchester, including two indie romantic-mysteries and four indie
nonfiction books. Her recent romantic-mystery, THE UNGRATEFUL DEAD, won
the 2015 Aspen Gold Readers’ Choice Award, short story
category. Colleen is a member of Romance Writers of America,
Mystery Writers of America, Private Eye Writers of America, and Sisters
in Crime.

When not sleuthing or writing, Colleen loves spending time with her
husband, two Rottweilers (named Jack Nicholson and Aretha Franklin),
and three cats.

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About Me

I love all things beauty and makeup, reading and books, and also have a keen interest in cooking and food. Combined with a husband who loves wine, we write a number of blogs that align with our interests. I have two blogs: Deanna's World which focuses on all things books and beauty, and Daz In The Kitchen which is my cooking and food blog. I hope you visit and stay around.

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